A Fowl Moment

The sun is out and I'm sooo tempted to go for another drive but the wind is blowing pretty good, supposed to get 40 mph gusts today...welcome to the high plains...I do have two more sets of photos to post from my previous drive out E of the Hills among the farms and ranches, a few days ago...I was heading for what I refer to as 'the pond', tooling along southward..... 

...when I spotted this fellow flitting about in a small tree...I took several photos as it bounced around, ignoring me, but none of them came out real sharp, doesn't it figure?? The yellow warbler isn't one to pose nicely...but I did get my best shots so far...

...I just love birds on a wire...they're even neater when one discovers they've never actually ID'd one before...all the sparrows I've seen in the grasslands that look like this, I've ID'd as the grasshopper sparrow, but lo and behold, we also have the vesper sparrow here, easy to ID by the clay-colored patch on its wing, as you can just make out on the right side here...if it were singing I'd of known better too, cause the grasshopper sparrow gets its name from the fact it sounds a lot like a grasshopper (really cool but weird!)

...then there's cows between wires...I also love the sarcastic look that the cattle seem to have as they eyeball me as I pass by...Calf #952 was munching a dandelion...

...Seen thru the wire, 'two' does near a crop of trees by a farm...as it turned out, there were several does...they all got up in alarm when I stopped for a photo...

...The male meadowlarks are still defending their territories...I think this is the closest I've been to one and got photos...he wasn't backing down..."Just move along sister!"

WHAT THE...???!! Ok, I've driven down this lane past a particular farm house several times...it's where I spotted my first/last lazuli bunting...and I'd never seen THIS bizzare bird! I knew right off it had to be from some other country...I saw two in a corral area, two on the road I had to wait for to move out of the way...

...A face only a mother could love, huh? I surfed the web and found out this is a helmeted guineafowl from Africa...brought to the US to control ticks...my dad would love those body feathers for fly tying...

The 'fowl' farm is near Elk Creek Rd., which 'the pond' is on...the bobolinks like this area and I was expecting to seem them...they're very hard to get photos of...they're only here in summer...

Near the pond, the killdeer are also back...last year I got some good shots of a killdeer that actually came towards me...this one gave me the cold..uh..'shoulder'....

Next I'll post Part III of my last outing, birds around the pond....

Birds on a Wire...and Other Things

We're having a cold, wet spring, ARG! The weather improved late morning yesterday, so I grabbed the camera and took a drive, a sort of long, narrow '0' circle north thru the Hills and south-ish thru the grasslands/farming community just E of the Hills...this is bird season to be sure so I was hopeful...the weather fluxed between sunny and cloudy...

First up, a black-billed magpie on a post...then it flew to a nearby wagon...no problem 'Finding Nemo' here, Nemo's a small, rustic town in the E Hills...no clown fish in the creek but the magpies seem to enjoy this spot...

Just outside of Nemo is the S entrance to Vanocker Canyon...I stopped along Elk Creek at a bird-loving spot (very skittish birds but I keep trying)...the creek was gushing hard due to all the rain we've had. I spotted this elusive American redstart, along with a BC chickadee, and nearby a flitty female common yellowthroat...

A willow flycatcher posed nicely for me...this could also be a W wood peewee but they're larger of the two so I'm guessing this is the WF, which is very common in the US...both are tyrant flycatchers...

Further into the farm grasslands, I quickly discovered that there is a great abundance of both kingbirds this year...last year I hardly saw any of the W kingbirds (above) at all...

The E kingbird doesn't mind posing, too bad it wasn't the right light...

The mourning doves were out mourning.....

Preferrably alone...oops, my bad....

There's always an abundance of Brewer's blackbirds...easily ID'd by the yellow eye...

Thru the wire...a trio of mallards near the farmhouse where I saw my first/last lazuli bunting last year...this year I discovered a bizzare lifer at this farm, that is far from its native land....stay tuned!

Good Day, Goldie!

First of all, please ignore the changes to my Blog design...I got to playing with things and I cannot get the header photo to appear right...it's huge and off center so I've had to remove it. Sigh! Shrink-to-fit is not doing its job!

Anyhow, we had a nice surprise at the feeders yesterday...several goldfinches descended upon our springy green back yard, and chowed down. My first set of photos were mostly a bust, taken thru the glass on top of the late afternoon light, but the 2nd time I got this lone male, below, when the light was better....

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Three males and two females...

Not a sharp photo but you can see the pretty wing pattern before this boy shoots down to the seeds...

We get plenty of house finches at the feeders, but they seemed leery of the goldfinches...and the dang blackbirds and cowbirds are spooking all of the smaller birds...

A female brown-headed cowbird at the bird bath.

The house sparrows are really scarce this year so far, but I do see one male and female once in awhile.

We also have a Mt. bluebird pair nesting in a neighbor's bird house, that make an appearance at the back neighbors' fences, but I haven't seen them at the bird bath as yet.

The Pasqueflower Promise

The sun finally peeked out of the clouds today around 11 AM, so I called a friend who's off work a few weeks recouping from back surgery (a second one, ARG!)...and we hit the road for Hwy 385 (the only paved route that runs the entire length of the Black Hills), taking a round about way to the Sugar Shack, our favorite burger joint. My friend J. mentioned she tried to find the pasqueflower recently but didn't see it. The flower is significant to us both because it's the state flower, and it's pretty much the first of the more showy early spring flowers to bloom after the looong winters here. I told her I'd found pasqueflowers last year on the hillside right at the turn-off for the boat launch area at Pactola Lake, so, stuffed to the brim with burger, fries, and soda, we waddled back to the car and headed further south to the point of interest. The flowers were there, the wind was blowing, but I managed a couple ok shots. The pasqueflower seems like proof, or a promise, that summer is finally on its way!

Happy Mother's Day!

I wish all of you moms out there a very Happy Mother's Day; may it be joyful and filled with love! Hubby gave me yellow roses, I just love them! We also celebrated yesterday to beat the crazy crowds, enjoyed an early supper out, no crowds, no waiting.  :o)

Spring is Seeping In

The sun is out, the birds are chirping...no sign of the aggressive robin that has been terrorizing the neighborhood...I have video to prove it...fellow was attacking our front window, or more likely the strange intruder robin he saw looking back at him from 'inside' the house...the neighbor reported the same crazy behavior at her front window. The starlings, brown-headed cowbirds, and Brewer's blackbirds are taking over the feeders and fallen seeds/bath, much to my dismay...sheesh...

I rode Tatanka Blanca to Hot Springs and further south to the very southern tip of the Hills a few days ago, to Keith Park along Cascade Creek. I saw goldfinches and a spotted towhee but no photos...

I did get shots of this slightly natty-looking mourning cloak...

...and a Milbert's tortoiseshell...those 'eyes' are downright freaky...

...On the way back N., I went thru Wind Cave Nat'l Park and made a stop at the picnic area, where a trail runs between the loop and the cave...birds were heard but not seen, but I did find Nuttall's violets growing in the area....

I thought this was interesting...a new pinecone had artfully fallen onto an old cone...

 

The prairie dogs were looking healthy, shiny-coated as they went about their spring cleaning.

The forecast is for temps in the 60's...not quite making it to 70 except maybe one day in the next week, but hey we're getting there...I ventured to trade the flannel sheets for reg. cotton ones so let's hope I didn't put a 'spring snow' hex on things! Yeesh. The huz and I took a walk this morning and I saw some bladderpod and phlox growing in a vacant lot...wildflowers are finally coming up.  :o)